Earth:Secondary organic aerosols

From HandWiki

Secondary Organic Aerosol or SOA are molecules produced via multigeneration oxidation of a parent organic molecule.[1] In contrast to primary organic aerosols, which are emitted directly from the biosphere, secondary organic aerosols are formed via homogeneous nucleation through the successive oxidation of gas-phase organic compounds. These gas-phase species exert high vapor pressures, meaning they are volatile and stable in the gas-phase, however, upon oxidation, the increased polarity of the molecules results in a reduction of vapor pressure. After sufficient oxidation, the vapor pressure is sufficiently low that the gas-phase compound partitions into the solid-phase, producing secondary organic matter.

A common misconception is that the aerosol refers to the solid phase of the compound, where in reality, by definition, it is the combination of the gas- and solid-phases which constitute the aerosol.

References

  1. Yee, Lindsay D.; Craven, Jill S.; Loza, Christine L.; Schilling, Katherine A.; Ng, Nga Lee; Canagaratna, Manjula R.; Ziemann, Paul J.; Flagan, Richard C. et al. (2012-06-21). "Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from Low-NOx Photooxidation of Dodecane: Evolution of Multigeneration Gas-Phase Chemistry and Aerosol Composition". The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 116 (24): 6211–6230. doi:10.1021/jp211531h. ISSN 1089-5639. Bibcode2012JPCA..116.6211Y. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp211531h. 

See also

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